Before all of this happened, I had left a career as a television makeup artist in Los Angeles to become a flight attendant. It was a rather sudden decision, but I was ready to leave the rat race of Hollywood behind, and I had always dreamed of flying and having the ability to travel and not be tied down. In 1988 I met and began dating Jerry, a great guy in the small city where I was based after I began my new career flying. Soon, I became rather serious with Jerry. I wanted to keep my options open and also missed L.A. and the friends I had there, and I went back and forth in my mind whether to return. I enjoyed my new profession, but I wasn’t crazy about living in the Midwest.
One of Jerry’s ex-lovers had been living with AIDS for a few years, though he remained relatively healthy. One ni
